Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/320

 all. Is not such divine happiness well worth attaining?'"

The answer to that rests with the women mainly, and to them Marie Corelli says:

"I want you to refuse to make your bodies and souls the traffickable material of vulgar huckstering,—I want you to give yourselves, ungrudgingly, fearlessly, without a price or any condition whatsoever, to the men you truly love, and abide by the results. If love is love indeed, no regret can be possible. But be sure it is love,—the real passion, that elevates you above all sordid and mean considerations of self,—that exalts you to noble thoughts and nobler deeds,—that keeps you faithful to the one vow, and moves you to take a glorious pride in preserving that vow's immaculate purity,—be sure it is all this,—for if it is not all this you are making a mistake and you are ignorant of the very beginnings of love. Try to fathom your own hearts on this vital question—try to feel,to comprehend, to learn the responsibilities invested in womanhood, and never stand before God's altar to accept a blessing on your marriage if you know in your inmost soul that it is no marriage at all in the true sense of the word, but merely a question of convenience and sale. To do such a deed is the vilest blasphemy,—a blasphemy in which you involve the very priest who pronounces the futile benediction. The saying 'God will not be mocked' is a true one; and least of all will He consent to listen to or ratify such a mockery as a marriage-vow sworn before Him in utter falsification and misprisal of His chiefest commandment,—Love. It is a wicked and wilful breaking of the law,—and is never by any chance suffered to remain unpunished."